[Topazz]

I had problems with the Fedora Core2/Win XP dual boot issue as well and now have my setup the same as saikee. Win XP has a hard drive to itself, as does FC2 and both are in removable caddies so that I can swap them around when needed. The third, fixed, hard drive contains my data so that it can be accessed by either OS.

[saikee]

Since then I have bought a commercial version of Suse 9.1 professional because it has got manuals which I desperately need. In fact I like Fedora 2 better even though I haven't made the sound work yet.

I managed to load the Suse after my XP (a backup copy wiith which I can screw without suffer the consequence). The two work seamlessly. Can't remember exactly what I did but the Linux bootload comes up first to present the choices of the two systems. I have kept the Fedora on a separate hard disk.

[Topazz]

I am not sure if I have got sound yet.

Still fiddling around trying to load my music partition which is being rather stubborn. Will have to try and make some system sounds sometime to see if any noise comes out of the speakers.

It would be good to know how the thread starter, gorebrush, got on with things.

[saikee]

Being less than two weeks old in Linux I am just starting to look at the various components of the system. Hoever I am hopeful by the fact that Suse has managed to trigger the sound while Fedora failed. So Linux can work with the sound, at least in the same PC. At the moment I am trying to have a go at the GRUB by its horns. If I manage to beat it into submission then the rest should be easier to deal. With multile boot I can boot one Linux to see its sound configuration and compare it with the one that fails. Anyway that is my game plan at the moment.

[blenheim]

I also installed this new FC2 onto my computer. And I have a same problem as you guys. I have a little experience from Mandrake 9.1 and a lot of experience from Windows'.

When I try to boot Other it says to me that NTLDR is missing and then some Intel stuff is getting on to find other places where to boot. Over the network. And other problem too. I can't access my hard disks. I have two separate HDD's, one for Linux and one for WinXP. I can't access that win disk. I checked that everything was safe on that other disk with my other computer. Everything was ok.

I've tried to mount it but nothing. That Fedoras own hardware management system finds this other disk and says its format right, vfat (Fat32). And it also finds Linux partition on this disk. So, what to do?

I've read those articles in your posted links, useful i think. Hope that I would have enough time to do what they say. Fortunately weekend is coming, and I've got a lot of cofeine pills !!!

P.S. Sorry about my crappy english, I live in Finland so I don't use english at everyday life. Hope that you understood what I mean !

[saikee]

I am still searching in the dark but between FC2, Suse 9.1 and Mandrake 9.2 the last two trigger the sound system in my computer so there must be hope.

I haven't come round to deal with the sound yet in FC2 as I need to move my different Linux to one HDD first. At the moment they are on mobile racks/caddies allowing me to choose the system just by inserting the appropriate HDD. My long term plan is to put the Linux systems together and manage them by Grub bootloader.

If the Win partition is within the same HDD the cmmand "mount" without any parameter seem to get the Win partition up in Linux.

[serebren]

First, GRUB must NOT be installed in the MBR.

Full How To here:http://www.geocities.com/epark/linux...w2k-HOWTO.html

If you already wrote GRUB to the MBR, you must clear it and may even have to zero out the entire hdd. I am not certain about that, but you WILL have to at LEAST zero out the MBR. Windows XP puts a lot of files in the middle of the hdd, so if zeroing out the MBR does not work...

You can zero out the MBR (first 63 sectors) or the entire drive with an hdd utility (which should also contain format and partitioning tools). I use Maxtor hdd's, so I have their large disk format utility CD.

Hope this helps, and you DON'T have to zero out the whole drive! An 80GB drive took me 6 hours!

[Whiteskin]

What the guy is adressing is really how to preserve the winnt boot loader (" This HOWTO applies if: # Your machine already has Windows installed, and you are installing Linux as a second operating system, and
# You want to leave the Windows boot loader (NTLDR) on the MBR (Master Boot Record). This allows you to continue to boot Windows with no issues. I've heard that Windows 2000/Windows XP or anti-virus software may complain if the MBR does not contain the Windows boot loader"). you don't NEED it, though in some setups it can be helpful. Grub can boot BY ITSELF most operating systems, including windows with a little caveat. http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...ml#DOS/Windows

[saikee]

Personally I think it rather silly to regard MBR as a no-go area. I have worked with 6 to 7 Linux systems in the four weeks so far in Linux and I have lost count the number of times I put NTLDR, Lilo and Grub into MBR. They can all be there one at a time. It is just up to the user what he want to do with it. Windows MBR can always be restored by the installation CD and both Grub and Lilo never write code into MBR longer than the position of the partition table. You let Grub or Lilo into MBR so that Linux controls Windows. NTLDR can be modified so that Linux is managed by Windows. However if one decide to leave Windows' MBR untouched and still want to use Linux he can do it by activing the desired partition.

A Linux can be installed one after the other behind Windows with whatever bootloader as long as it is confined to its own primary partition. Each of the Linux is bootable simply by making its primary partition active (thereby deactivating Windows and its MBR). More details is this post

None the my Linux systems and Windows would do damage to each other. The damage is usually a result of a user not knowing how to partition the hard drive and say yes the first time an OS offering to grab the whole disk for its own.

I have also described Mr. Windows and the Linux brothers going after Miss MBR in a sex story in the latter part of the thread in here

[serebren]

I found out that the real cause of this problem is:

Fedora installation changes the CHS disk geometry information in the MBR.

You would think that when using LBR this would not matter. Firstly, Fedora install should not need to change the CHS info. Secondly, Windows XP/2000/NT shouldn't check the CHS info. You would be right in theory, but unfortunately Fedora install changes the CHS info, and Windows XP/2000/NT checks it and will not load if it is not standard CHS info.

You can tell Fedora what CHS info to put in the MBR, and copy the current CHS info. More info on that here: http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedor.../msg00908.html

Hope that helps everyone!

[NyahLevi]

I had the same problem, do a google search, there's an easy way to fix it using sfdisk, but I don't have the article handy. I appologize for mentioning another forum, but the answer I got came from www.linuxquestion.net. It's appearently a Linux 2.6 core problem. The gist of it is that you generate a text file with sfdisk and remove the comments and move it into a configuration file. Nyah Levi
Okay I found the exact article for fixing this problem. here's the link:
http://www.fedorazine.com/index.php?...sk=view&id=191
Best of luck NL

[I Fix 4 U]

all problems fixed by using two hardrives here. besides i didnt want2 resize my ntfs on my first harddrive, so i bought a new one.